Rajya Sabha Passes The IIIT Amendment Bill; Five New Institutes To Get ‘National Importance’ Tag

New Delhi: Indian Parliament on Tuesday passed a bill that will declare five newly formed Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) as institutions of national importance.

Surat, Bhopal, Bhagalpur, Agartala and Raichur are the five new IIITs set up on a Public-Private Partnership model.

The Indian Institutes of Information Technology Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2020 was passed by Lok Sabha on March 20.

Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank on Monday introduced the bill in the Upper House (Rajya Sabha)

There are a total of 25 IIITs in India and out of which five are run by the Centre and 15 operate under the public-private partnership (PPP) model, the education minister said.

“We have brought the proposal before this House to bring five new operational institutes which are located and have started operations in Surat (Gujarat), Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), BhagalPh.D. (Bihar), Agartala (Tripura), and Raichur (Karnataka) to bring under this act,” Pokriyal was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.

He said, “If we bring these five new institutes under IIITs Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2020 then it will become an institute of national importance and they will have the legal right to issue a diploma, degree, Ph.D., etc.”

This bill also helps these institutions attract more students required to develop a strong research base in India in the field of information technology.